


Soldier Come Back

by Sangerin



Category: The Dish (2000)
Genre: Childhood Friends, Community: 40fandoms, F/M, Fathers & Daughters, Vietnam War
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-21
Updated: 2013-01-21
Packaged: 2017-11-26 08:18:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 373
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/648499
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sangerin/pseuds/Sangerin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Marie, love - there's news of Keith."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Soldier Come Back

The day Marie realises how well Keith has wormed his way into her heart is the day she is told that he has died in Vietnam.

It's the cliché to end all clichés. Now that he's gone, she realises how much he meant to her when he was there.

But he always was there. Annoying. Respectful. Polite. Simply _there,_ asking her to dance and hovering near her after church just in case she deigned to speak to him. They had gone to school together, and played together after school and on the weekends. There was a loose paling in the fence between their back yards, and Marie loosened it further while Keith worried that their fathers wouldn't like it.

They went to Sunday School together, competing for the attendance prizes until Marie had declared herself too grown up for the school stories she was given each year. Then she had edged towards declaring that she didn't believe in God, either, and that she wasn't going to church any more, but she didn't want to see the disappointment in her father's face, and so she dutifully continued to go, and even (until she left for University) to wear gloves.

In High School Marie declared that she was too grown up to play with boys, and asked her father to fix the hole in the fence. She began to pointedly ignore Keith (while keeping a careful eye on what he was actually doing.) 

She and Keith went off to University "together": they went to the same city, found (separate) houses in the same suburb, and Keith never saw Marie if Marie saw him first.

They watched the moon walk together, because Keith had a backbone Marie hadn't expected.

Keith spent Christmas Day with Marie's family, because Billy invited him when Keith's parents had to rush away to care for Keith's grandmother.

After that, Keith was called up. Marie was away in Sydney; and she didn't see him again. She was home for the weekend when her father came into her room in the morning, slowly, cautiously. 

'Marie, love, there's…' he trailed off. 'There's news of Keith,' he said. That was the moment when she realised that she missed him terribly. And that she always would.

**Author's Note:**

> Title from the Dixie Chicks' hit "Travelling Soldier".


End file.
